AbstractResearch conducted by Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith has shown promise for the effects of cognitive dissonance on personal belief, and the adjustment of those beliefs to match publicly supported, yet contradictory arguments. We are testing to see whether the cognitive dissonance theory can be overcome by explicitly telling participants to step out of the role that they were assigned to. Participants included fifteen female and five male Lehigh undergraduates who watched a video clip about the relevance of aquatic theory, and were then told to evaluate that theory from an assenting or dissenting viewpoint to which they were assigned. Following their review, participants were asked to abandon their assigned roles, and complete a survey that would measure their personal agreement with the speaker in the video clip. Our findings were not significant enough to definitively say whether beliefs were altered as a result of assigned roles, and the detachment from them, but the average assessment of agreement score showed a slight difference in our predicted direction, that beliefs would be changed as a result of dissonance.

Cognitive Dissonance Analysis: Stepping Out of Assigned Roles Human belief is thought to play a major role in deciding course of action. What if actions, however, proved to play a role in forming human belief? Recent studies conducted by Festinger and Carlsmith assign merit to the cognitive dissonance theory, a theory that explores the disconnect between actions and beliefs and lends itself to the possibility of altering those beliefs based on existing societal pressure to conform. Plainly put, cognitive dissonance is the presence of behaviors that are inconsistent with beliefs and that cause psychological discomfort. In an effort to prove the Cognitive Dissonance Theory, researchers decided to experiment with incentive. Participants were pressured and bribed to take on assigned roles as promoters of the experiment, despite their true feelings of boredom and disinterest in it, and some ended up believing in the new perspective. The cognitive dissonance theory arose as an explanation for the changes in some of the participant’s beliefs about the experiment. This result was seen more prevalently when participants were given less money (one dollar) and not really noticed when participants were given more money (twenty dollars). It seems that one dollar is not enough initiative to justify the false promotion of a boring experiment, so cognitive dissonance is experienced. Taken directly from Festinger and Carlsmith’s study, “One way in which the dissonance can be reduced is a person to change his private opinion so as to bring it into correspondence with what he has said.” (Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith 204) The change in belief that the participants experienced is synonymous with this idea. Those who received 20 dollars, got enough money to justify lying to another participant about their own experience, and thus, dissonance was experienced to a lesser degree. The external incentive seems to detract from any internal conflict, because a substantial amount of money is enough justification for internal dissonance. It is understandable that our study would be looking into the effects of cognitive dissonance because participants were told to support opposing viewpoints from their own. Despite the fact that Cognitive dissonance theory has been supported for quite some time, our study aims to challenge its validity. In their study, Festinger and Carlsmith had their participants fill out evaluation forms after their participation, but they never explained that the participants could abandon their assigned role. This lapse in communication, or at the very least clarification, compromises the integrity and the establishment of the cognitive...

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Bristy.
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Communication is an essential process in our everyday life. Each &amp; every moment we communicate- with others or with ourselves. Communication is a non-stop process which we carry out in both conscious &amp; subconscious states. But various terms, advantages &amp; problems are related with communication. I am a second semester student of the ‘Mass Communication &amp; Journalism’ department. Although it is very early, I have learnt lots of things about communication &amp; related to communication from our classes. One of the things is ‘CognitiveDissonance’.
COGNITIVEDISSONANCE
Aesop tells a story (‘The Fox &amp; the Grapes’; the source of the phrase ‘sour grapes’) about a fox that tried in vain to reach a cluster of grapes hanging from a vine high above his head. The fox jumped high to grasp the grapes, but the delicious-looking fruit remained out of reach of his snapping jaws. After a few attempts the fox gave up &amp; said to himself, “These grapes are sour &amp; if I had some I would not eat them.”
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CognitiveDissonanceCognitivedissonance theory has been around since the late fifties. It has inspired many psychologists to figure out the murky depths of people’s minds. The theory relates strongly to decision making, social phenomenons and mental angst. Many paradigms exist within cognitivedissonance. Two important paradigms are the Belief Disconfirmation paradigm and the Free Choice paradigm. There are several experiments that have been studied that relate to cognitivedissonance, including the boring tasks experiment. The person who coined the phrase cognitivedissonance is the famous Leon Festinger, and he studied it inside and out. Cognitivedissonance is one of the most important topics within psychology because it questions the mind and explains social phenomena.
Cognitivedissonance challenges the reinforcement theory. The reinforcement theory has been around for a long time, much longer than the cognitivedissonance theory. The reinforcement theory states that social-psychological phenomena are explained through behavioral approaches (Metin). On the contrary, cognitivedissonance theory is based off of cognitions (the process of knowing and...

...CognitiveDissonanceCognitivedissonance is having a thought, idea, attitude, or belief that seems to be out of tune. Cognitivedissonance tends to result in different ways based on the situation that it occurs in. If a person is forced to say an opinion that differs from their own, they experience an out of tune feeling. In Roger Hock’s book “Forty Studies that Changed Psychology,” he recognizes the study of cognitivedissonance performed by Leon Festinger. In “Thoughts Out of Tune,” the article specifically explaining Festinger’s study, Hock goes further into detail. He explains that if we are forced to state an opposed view, while preparing for it, we tend to believe it along with out own. This creates confusing, stress, and dissonance. Festinger’s study explains why and when people may or may not feel cognitivedissonance.
Festinger proposed whatever you state publicly, will be a reflection of your personal views. If any person must speak publicly for any reason that goes against their own private belief, they will definitely feel uncomfortable. However, when offered a reward, the comfort levels can change. If someone offers the speaker a large reward, the speaker will feel more comfort in changing their attitude about the ideas or beliefs being said,...

...CognitiveDissonance is a psychological discomfort caused by inconsistency among a person's belief, attitudes, and or actions. There are three hypotheses that explain the theory. The first hypothesis is selective exposure which is the tendency to avoid information inconsistent with one's belief and attitudes. One only accepts information that is consistent with their own thoughts. Hypothesis two is post-decision dissonance; which are close call decisions and can affect a decision one makes. And the third hypothesis is minimal justification, which is a counter attitudinal action, freely chosen with little incentive or justification, leading to a change in attitude (Craig, R., 1998, http://www.colorado.edu/communication/meta-discourses/Theory/dissonance/).
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...SteppingOut in Faith
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The change from being religious to being more traditional reflects the change in our ideologies. No longer are we fixated on the physical Bible itself but we are using that same concept of having a book or a physical documentation of our beliefs and replacing the role of the Bible. Not only does this reflect a change in our country's religion (which has been embedded into many historical documents and texts) and tradition, but it brings light to the fact that there is a new emergence of the “new religions”.
This shift of the meaning of swearing on the Bible doesn't necessarily mean that people are becoming less religious. In today’s understanding of the word, religious, this shift can be seen as people becoming less religious because they’re not believing in the religious meaning behind swearing on the bible but in actuality,...

...Cognitivedissonance refers to a situation involving conflicting attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. This situation produces a feeling of discomfort or dissonance leading to an alteration in one of the attitudes, beliefs or behaviors to reduce the discomfort and restore balance etc. For example, when someone is forced to do something publicly that they privately really don't want to do, dissonance is created between their cognition (I didn't want to do this) and their behavior (I did it).
The term was first coined by Leon Festinger in his 1956 book, When Prophecy Fails: A social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group That Predicted the Destruction of the World. This book gave an inside account of belief persistence in members of a UFO doomsday cult, and documented the increased proselytization or conversion of opinions they exhibited after the leader's "end of the world" prophecy failed to come true. The prediction of the Earth's destruction, supposedly sent by aliens to the leader of the group, became a disconfirmed expectancy (failed prophecy) that caused dissonance between the cognitions, "the world is going to end" and "the world did not end." This failed prophecy idea known as disconfirmed expectancy can and will, almost in every situation, lead to a form of cognitivedissonance.
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